ECAC Hockey

ECAC Hockey is a group of colleges and universities in the NortheasternUnited States who play NCAA Division I hockey against one another every season.. It is the only NCAA Division I hockey conference whose members all have varsity men's and women's teams. The league's champions are automatically invited to the NCAA Division I men's and women's hockey tournaments.

Another unique feature of the conference is its unofficial relationship with another conference, the Ivy League. Six of the Ivy league's eight schools have both men's and women's hockey teams; all six are members of ECAC Hockey. Although the Ivy League does not officially sponsor hockey, it still has a conference hockey champion—it uses the results of its members in ECAC Hockey to determine a winner.

During the major hockey conference realignment of 2011 and 2012 triggered by the decision of the Big Ten Conference to start a men's hockey league in 2013, the ECAC was the only Division I men's hockey conference that neither gained nor lost a member.